Trap Plants

Have you ever tried using a trap plant in the garden?

I have such an issue with the cabbage white butterflies.  They really, really enjoy my happy heirloom varieties and organic gardening techniques.  I swear, they make a u-turn off my neighbors' Sevin-laced poison plants and head directly into the salad bar that is my brassica bed.

The tiny seedling above is Lunaria, commonly known as Honesty or Money Plant.  I grew up knowing it as Silver Pennies (or Dollars, depending on who's house I was at).  It's in the brassica family, kin to the more delicious cabbages and broccoli of the world.  In theory, the cabbage whites should be just as attracted to these plants as they are to my heirloom Couve Tronchuda kale plants.  Particularly if said kale plants are fenced in by my soon-to-be-built cabbage cages.

I'm hoping they also work to deter the cabbage moths from eating my exotic purple Graffiti cauliflower.

Just look at those wee beauties.  Cannibal cabbage moths, beware.  This year, the brassica bed is OFF. LIMITS.